One look at the Gustavus events calendar will show that the days of January are chalk-full of events meant to keep boredom and the winter blues at bay.  However, January Interim’s infamous reputation for large amounts of free time (and even larger amounts of Netflix-watching) often provides a challenge for the groups on campus who hope to get students out of their dorms and to on-campus activities.  This year, the exceptionally cold weather provided another obstacle for groups hoping to raise their event attendance levels.

One of the primary sponsors for campus events, the Gustavus Campus Activities Board, was hard at work this January Interim, organizing many events, including Pinterest Parties, Medallion Hunt, Blazin’ Challenge, Knitting Nights, Fear Factor, and Zombie Week.

First Year Ben Michalicek, coordinator of the January Interim Zombie Week, counts his particular event as a success, topping out at 124 student participants. Complete with hilarious “infection” stories posted to a Facebook group page, this popular event mimicked the game, “Assassins,” in which participants receive a “target” that they must “infect” in order to receive a new target. The stakes were high for the participants of this ongoing event; Zombie Week’s Grand Prize was a choice between a Wiiu or Kindle Fire.

First Year Nicole Pexa, Secretary of the January Interim Campus Activities Board Committee, noted that this year’s unique events, such as Fear Factor, really drew in a crowd.

“Fear factor was definitely popular . . . I think it’s because people like to see other people in pain. The same was true for the Blazin’ Challenge,” Pexa said.

Michalicek also reflected on what he considered to be the highlight of the Fear Factor Event. “People had to put crickets into their mouths and then spit them into a bucket, which I thought was the best because when they declared that there was five seconds left, this kid who was really intent on winning, rather than putting one cricket in his mouth at a time, he just took the bag and poured them all into his mouth,” Michalicek said.

Aside from the impressive prizes and people-watching opportunities that drew students out to the events, some events that were offered promised to teach a new skill. Knitting Nights and the Self-Defense Class each attracted a good-sized audience. “I really loved going to knitting nights,” Pexa said. “It gave me chance to learn something new and all of the people were willing to help me with anything I needed.”

First Year Tatianna Thurik, co-planner of the popular Wednesday night Pinterest Parties, enjoyed being more involved in the planning process.

“Over J-Term the roles reverse and the committee members become executives, and so we [the committee members] were actually the ones doing all the planning of the events,” Thurik explained.

Michalicek noted that the planning, although time-consuming, was rewarding.

“I spent time looking over everything from last year and deciding if there was anything I wanted to fix or anything I wanted to change, then made additions and subtractions,” Michalicek said.

Many of the January Interim event coordinators were younger, first-time planners, however, with the help of Campus Activities Board Executives, they learned how to plan successful events. The younger age of the planners correlates to the age of the students who are usually on campus over January Interim, and therefore, news about many events was easily spread by word of mouth.

“We have so many events over J-Term because we want to encourage students to make positive choices, since most schedules tend to be very loose and allow a lot of free time we want to give students the opportunity to use that freedom in a productive and safe way,” Michalicek said.

Campus Activities Board will continue to impress during spring semester with events such as, bingo and Gustie Cup, as well as the highly anticipated Big Concert and President’s Ball.